Food, Wine, Travel

Train Trak Winery

A spare Sunday afternoon, some magnifent Spring sunshine, a new car to take for a drive, and volunteers to try out the passenger seats. Destination: Yarra Valley. After a zoom through green vineyard-covered hills, stopping at a few favourites for some tasting including Balgownie Estate (the sparkling Shiraz should not be missed) we pulled up at Train Trak for some lunch. Having not been back there since a 40 degree February day some years back for Grape Grazing, where the ground was brown and dusty and we sat on picnic rugs under the shade of a tree, it was a delightful discovery indeed to step into ZONZO, the restaurant, festooned with paper lanterns and flowers, and to be met with an aroma of wood-fired pizza and other Italian fare. A quick glass of Train Trak Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay to wet the whistle, and we moved outside into the sunshine, a vista of vines and daisy-dotted grass laid out before us.

The menu was packed full of Mediterranean goodness, and we wasted no time ordering up a storm of pizzas, including the alla salsiccia (tomato, mozzarella, pork and fennel sausage, spanish onion and rosemary), the con carciofi (tomato, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, proscuitto, rocket, gorgonzola) and the con marscapone (tomato, mozzarella, walnuts, speck and marscapone). We also ordered a salad of buffalo mozzarella, mini roma tomatoes, basil, and baby spinach.

These pizzas were an absolute delight – light crispy base, fresh produce, just the right amount of cheese and toppings, and we followed up with the tiramisu, which for my money was bang on – and as Paolo Vino always maintains, it’s about the ratio of the marscapone/whipped cream to sponge biscuit and coffee. Zonzo clearly understands this important point.